Welcome Back to School!

Welcome back to school!  We had such a fantastic time learning and playing together today.  This morning we had our preschool A class join us for lots of fun.  We played puzzles and with Starfall.com on the SmartBoard.  We read books about going to preschool and talked about the different fun things we'll get to do in preschool.  We learned the morning routine and talked about how we can wash our hands before snack time.  Each child gets to pour their own water at snack and we had zero spills, fantastic for a first day!

For art we colored our names in our journals and drew a picture of what we did in preschool on the first day of school.

We read The Napping House for math time and talked about the quantity of one.  Each child got their own copy of the book, so be sure to check for it in their backpack and pull it out to read at home.  We also went "fishing" to catch one fish at a time.  The kids were so full of excitement telling me all about the type or color of fish they were able to catch.  We enjoyed talking all about sound in terms of volume during music time and then got to play with all the different instruments.

There is new homework in their backpacks.  Remember that it is completely optional and if you choose to do it you may take as long doing it as you need.  There is no need to return it.  Today's homework is working on the colors red, yellow and blue.  You can sing and color the pages with your child.

This afternoon we had a fantastic preschool B class.  We also started our day with puzzles and playing on the SmartBoard.  Quite a few of the 48 piece puzzles were pulled apart and we worked in teams trying to put them back together.  What great teamwork they all exhibited!  When we sat down to start reading we talked about the most important things that good readers do.  They LOOK at the words, POINT at the letters, MAKE THE SOUNDS of the letters with their mouths, and LISTEN with their ears.  We worked on the letters M, T, A and the sight word "the" today.  Please work at home on those letters and reading their mini reader books (in their binders).  At school we got to practice reading our mini books to our new reading buddies, the sock monkeys.  It seemed to be a hit with the kids. In our encyclopedias we looked through lots of different pages and marked the letters M, T, A and the word "the" with highlighter tape anywhere we could find it.  You could continue that activity at home if you'd like.

 For math we also read The Napping House and talked about the quantity of one through five.  There were two pages that we did in school where we needed to identify how many fingers were held up and then color the same number of items (some kids didn't finish - finish at home if you'd like) and the second page we talked about which items there were 1 of, 2 of, 3 of, and so forth.  After math we moved into music where we explored all the different types of instruments we have in our box and danced around to music.

We also learned to pour our own drinks for snack time and worked on coloring our names and drawing a picture of our first day of school in our journals during art time.  There is new homework in their folder.  It is a focus on red, yellow and blue.  We'll be mixing colors of paint on Wednesday to learn what makes orange, green and purple.

School today was a whirlwind of excitement.  Please holler my way if you have any questions.  It was a fantastic day of learning!

Back to School!

YAY!  It's August and time for school to start!  I LOVE getting back into routine and having a calmer life after the summer.  We had a fantastic Back to School night last week.  We got to play and run around at Monkey Bizness.  Kids got to see their old friends and meet their new friends.  We had oodles of fun!

 I spent much of my time talking to parents and giving all the details of school starting so we would all be on the same page.  These are the few photos I was able to snap in the short time I got to play with the kids.

 It is going to be such a fantastic school year with these awesome families!  I can't wait for tomorrow morning!  Everything is all set up and ready.

Getting Excited!

It's been quiet here on the blog, but I've been working over time getting ready for the school year. I updated the bulletin board and replaced a light bulb. It's super bright and cheery in the classroom now and I can't wait for everyone to see it. We're going with a monkey theme this year and the cute little sock monkey school set is ready and waiting to be read to!

There is one spot still available for Preschool A (Monday/Wednesday) in the morning. Back to school night is this Wednesday and we start school on Monday.  Holler my way if you're interested in filling the spot or share the info with friends if you're already enrolled.  I'm so excited for the school year to start! 

Christmas in July!

I'm busily getting ready for the next preschool year to start and thought a little Christmas in July sale would be fun!

It's Christmas in July!  The Little Adventures Preschool Curriculum is on sale! All purchases made July 25-27 qualify for double reward dollars (for every $10 spent, receive $1 reward to be used towards a future purchase). To earn rewards, members need to rate and provide feedback for purchased products. Swing on over to see what would help you! http://www.teachersnotebook.com/shop/LittleAdventuresPreschool 

May Preschool

May preschool is so much fun!  We review all of what we've learned throughout the year - and that's A LOT!  We practice our reading, writing, drawing, singing, math, puzzles and have an all around good time.  I do a one-on-one assessment with each child to figure out what they know and what we'll be working on together next.  Find review activities and the assessment to do with your kids at home or school here.  We had a fantastic year of learning and I look forward to seeing most of these kids in Preschool B in August.  Happy Summer everyone!

Tot School Friends

We had a great last day of tot school.  It's the last day of tot school that I'll be doing and we had so much fun talking all about friends!  It was lovely weather, we ate popcorn, sang songs, and played outside for most of the day!  It was a fantastic year of learning and I've loved every minute of it!

Tot School Pets

We had a great day learning about pets in tot school. Everyone loved the stuffed animals and the masks that we played with.  We talked about how to treat animals kindly. We practiced the songs we'd be singing for our end of year celebration, played puzzles, reviewed all our letters and played outside in the snow.  Can you believe that it snowed?  May is crazy like that in Colorado. What a great day of school!